Valentine's Requiem
by Alexandra989
Summary: Nico and Will have a slightly different Valentine's experience.


Nico's mouth was pulled back in a grimace as he made his way across the camp green, trying to stay as low as possible. Pink, red and white streamers were strung from cabin to cabin, with heart-shaped balloons tied at intervals, courtesy of the Aphrodite cabin. Nico hated the Cupid decorations the most. Even the Ares cabin was semi-decorated. Many, especially new, younger campers, were surprised Clarisse had allowed it, but the older campers knew it had to do with Silena. Baskets of multi-coloured flowers were displayed outside the Demeter cabin, with a large sign in front of them reading _'Get a bouquet for your loved ones this Valentine's! Only 5 drachmas/ denarii each!'_

Not many demigods were in camp; they had either gone out into the city for dates or to New Rome, like Percy and Annabeth had. After the war with Gaea, many new relationships bloomed between Greek and Roman demigods. And most of them, Nico heard, looked up to Jason and Piper's relationship (or as they called it, Jasper), sort of like Alexander the Great and Hephaestion visiting the tomb of Achilles and Patroclus. Jasper was their OTP. Nico could only hope he wasn't part of any OTPs. That would be deadly embarrassing.

As Nico walked past the Apollo cabin on his way to his own cabin, he noticed it was almost empty. Only a couple of Apollo campers loitered, trying to avoid any Aphrodite demigods. There was no sign of Will Solace, but Nico guessed he was somewhere inside, as the infirmary had also been empty. Nico was somehow thankful Will hadn't yet approached him with any ridiculous romantic Valentine's gestures, but he couldn't help worrying about his b- _possible_ significant other.

"Hey, Nico," said one of Will's siblings. "You here to see Will?"

Skeletal butterflies seemed to take flight in Nico's stomach at the mention of Will. He felt a blush creep up on his cheeks and silently cursed himself. Even though he and Will had been together, sort of, for a while, he still got embarrassed at little things like that. "Uh..."

"He's inside. You can go in if you want," the Apollo kid said. He seemed distracted, looking off to Nico's right, where a group of Aphrodite campers were giggling. He did not seem to notice Nico's reaction. Nico heaved a sigh of relief. "I gotta stay away from those Aphrodite conspirators; they'll be the death of me!" He didn't cast Nico even a second glance as he hurried behind his cabin.

Nico cast a glance at the Aphrodite campers and decided he should probably seek some shelter as well.

Nico had been in the Apollo cabin a couple of times before. One was when he had been tasked with cabin inspection and the other had been a personal invitation from Will. The walls were painted a soft yellow and the bunks were arranged neatly against the walls. Posters of famous musicians and slogans like 'Music is Life' were hung up. The occasional musical instrument could be spotted, like a portable keyboard or a guitar. On one part of the wall near the back of the cabin, a huge assortment of bows were hung. At the back of the cabin, there was an altar to Apollo.

Will's bunk was somewhere in the middle of the cabin. Beneath the bunk, Nico spied stacks of chemistry and biology books. Will sat cross-legged on his bed, fiddling with something in his hands. He didn't notice Nico entering.

"Will?"

Will jumped. He looked around worriedly, as though expecting an attack, before his eyes landed on Nico. He heaved an inaudible sigh of relief.

"Oh, hello Death Boy. I was, um, about to head over to your place..." He bent, retrieved a box from beneath his bed and tossed the item he had been holding into it.

"What's that?" Nico asked, choosing to ignore the Death Boy address. He walked over to Will's side.

Will hesitated, before plucking the item out of the box. "It's nothing, really." He held up a photograph. For one wild moment, Nico thought it was an old boyfriend's of Will or something, but then he recognized the face in the picture. Lee Fletcher. Unconsciously, Nico sat down next to Will.

Lee and a younger Will were grinning at the camera, holding up a trophy about half their size. It was gold, decorated with roses and... were those hammers? It had 'World's Best Girlfriend' printed on it.

"Lee and Nyssa were something for a while, and this was on Valentine's a few years ago," Will explained. "Lee had already started working on it days before Valentine's and it was quite a task to keep it secret from the Aphrodite kids." Will smirked. "Nyssa was thrilled, but after they broke up, I think she undid the whole thing and used it for her projects..." Will glanced down at the photograph. "I found this a few days ago. Thought I'd lost it."

Nico didn't know what to say. He studied Will's face as the latter gazed at the photo. He recognized the look on the son of Apollo's face; he had seen it in the mirror after he found out Bianca was dead. Nico took a deep breath.

"How was he like? Lee?" he asked, quietly.

Will raised his eyebrows, slightly taken aback by Nico's question. "Lee? He was the best brother ever. They're all great but he was the best, and trust me, everyone here would agree. He was the first person I met on my first day at camp, at the borders. I thought he was that type of arrogant, egoistical guy like the ones at my old school who loved picking on people... but he was awesome. He listened to everyone of us whenever we had problems... he didn't give advice or anything, he wasn't good at that. He just listened. And then he would give us a hug or chest-bump us or something."

Will fell silent for a while.

"And when we had archery... I remember my first day practising archery. I sucked, if you wanted to know. Lee was coaching us and he kept cracking jokes for pretty much the entire archery lesson. Most of our arrows were deflected because we were shaking from so much laughter." Will smiled. "You should've heard his Percy Jackson and the Arrows of Doom series of jokes. That was when Percy was still new here."

Nico couldn't help smiling at the thought of Percy with a bow and arrow.

"What about Bianca? What was she like?"

Nico's heart thudded. He had forgotten how straightforward Will sometimes could be. It was an Apollo thing, probably, since Apollo was also the god of truth. For a moment, Nico almost changed the subject.

"She was a great sister," he began, averting his gaze so as not to meet Will's eyes. "I don't remember much of our time together in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, unfortunately. But from before, in Venice, we pretty much spent all our hours playing and making up games. She had been the one to introduce me to Mythomagic. That's one of the few things I remember from the Lotus Hotel."

"Mytho-what?"

Nico smirked. "Oh, I have to teach you to play sometime. Anyway..." Now that the focus of their conversation had been slightly diverted, Nico felt almost reluctant to talk any more about Bianca.

"Go on," Will said. Nico sighed inaudibly and continued.

"But then I got so obsessed with the game, she started to dislike it. We sometimes had small arguments, but it was never anything serious. She was just annoyed about how much I would keep talking about the game."

"Probably had something to do with the ADHD, huh?" Will grinned. "Anyway, you gotta teach me this game someday. Go on."

Nico was a little surprised at how easy it was to talk to Will about Bianca. He poured out his heart, confiding in Will his anger at discovering Bianca had joined he hunters, how he felt after she died. Will listened intently, not saying a word. Nico didn't dare meet his eyes, but he could feel Will's concentrated on him.

Nico paused for a moment, and took a deep, shaky breath.

"She was the only person who loved me, and she died." Nico unconsciously twisted the skull-shaped ring on his finger.

Nico heaved an inaudible sigh of relief. It felt surprisingly good to have opened up to Will about his sister. Will rested his hand on Nico's. The touch sent sparks of electricity coursing through Nico's body, and he looked down as his cheeks reddened. They were silent for a while, listening to the loud chatter and cheers of the Aphrodite campers that floated in through the front door of the Apollo cabin.

Nico's eyes widened when Will pulled him into a hug. His pulse accelerated and he found it hard to breathe.

"I'm sorry, it's Valentine's but I..." Will finally spoke. "... I made you bring this up."

"It's okay."

"By the way, I've got something for you..."

#

"Am I not a genius? Now it wouldn't look so out-of-place in your cabin!" Will grinned.

Nico's dark eyes surveyed the three-foot tall silver trophy adorned with skeletons. One skull was perched at the very top with a red rose between its teeth. Printed on the front was 'World's (and the Cosmos's) Best Boyfriend'. That was the most awful part. The wave of skeletal butterflies in Nico's stomach was so strong this time it made him feel weak-kneed. A bunch of campers nearby were giggling and a couple of Aphrodite girls were squealing.

"Thanks, Will," Nico said, as casually as he could.

Will studied his handiwork once more. "I know it's one of Lee's crazy ideas, but I thought maybe I could pull it off."

"Let's take it to my cabin," Nico said. "And perhaps I could teach you some Mythomagic?"

Will beamed. "Sounds perfect."

** Wanted to write some Solangelo for Valentine's :-P Hope it turned out okay... I always had this headcanon that Bianca first found out about Mythomagic and thought maybe Nico would like it... **

** Thanks for reading, by the way! **


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